Text Amendment – Project ReCode – Proposed Draft Sections 27-300, 27-900 & 27-1000 - New Rural Residential, Neighborhood and Agricultural Zone Districts: Site Standards and General Uses  This is the first in a series of Public Hearings on the Public Review Draft of the County Zoning Regulations. This first hearing will focus on the new rural residential, neighborhood and agricultural districts - Section 27-300, 27-900 - and the uses allowed in these districts - Section 27-1000.
 

Planning staff recommends the Zoning Commission conduct the public hearing and receive public comment on the Public Review Draft of the new zoning code. No action is required at this time.

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The current zoning regulations for the County were adopted on November 6, 1973, and unified with the City zoning regulations in December 1997. Since 1973, the County has amended the text of the regulations and added several zoning districts. The County has amended the 1973 zoning code 40 times in the past 47 years since its adoption. Of those 40 amendments, only a few were major changes, including the addition of the entryway and interchange zone districts in 1992. The County sign code was not part of the unification of the city and county codes in 1997 and was a separate code section until 2017. In 2017, in anticipation of a comprehensive code update, the City and County agreed to formally separate the zoning codes to aid in the process of the comprehensive update known as Project Re:Code.

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In 2016, after Billings adopted a new growth policy, the City/County Planning Board realized the existing zoning regulations, intended to implement the new Billings Growth Policy and the existing 2008 Yellowstone County Growth Policies, were no longer effective tools for advancing community growth goals. The existing code was primarily based on a set of growth goals adopted before 1970 with some new code sections added to try and achieve smaller area goals. The Planning Board initiated this major code update in June 2017 and appointed an ad hoc Steering Committee to help guide the process of the code update. The City Council and Board of County Commissioners were in complete agreement with the need for a major code update.

The Steering Committee set to work and met monthly from August 2017 until December 2017. In December 2017, the Steering Committee finalized a set of Guiding Principles for the code update and appointed four Working Groups to handle the intensive, hands-on work of updating the code. Those groups included some Steering Committee members as well as interested residents. The four groups consisted of the County Issues Working Group, the Urban Issues Working Group, Sign Code Working Group and Landscaping Code Working Group. The groups met monthly from January 2018 until January of 2020 to review, draft, and accept public comment on the draft code sections.

The City and County also agreed to fund the services of a consultant team to help the Steering Committee and Working Groups evaluate the code deficiencies, analyze the character of Billings and County neighborhoods, and help draft a new set of regulations. The consultant team was hired in April 2018 and consists of Elizabeth Garvin, of Community ReCode (CO), Leslie Olberholtzer of Codametrics (IL) and Randy Hafer of High Plains Architects (MT). This team met with each Working Group through the project development and helped the local residents create a code that is uniquely crafted for our local community goals. Best practices were brought to the table from around the Rocky Mountain region as well as similar communities throughout the country. A Code Assessment was presented to the community in October 2018 that helped the Steering Committee and Working Groups create a path forward to building the new code.

The information in the following paragraph is city centric but is important to understanding Project Re:Code as a whole. The Planning Division requested and was awarded VISTA members to assist with the code analysis in particular as it related to creating new attainable housing choices in Billings. The VISTA members created a Billings Pattern Guide - an on line publication and guide to the core neighborhoods of Billings. The VISTA members analyzed Home Mortgage Data to find out if there were neighborhoods in Billings where home loans might be skewed or denied due to race or ethnicity. Some Billings neighborhoods had much lower mortgage origination rates than others but there was no clear distinction based on the applicants race or ethnicity. The VISTA members completed special research to analyze the existing housing choices in Billings and identify gaps in market demand and housing supply. Their findings indicated a mis-match between the household size (1 & 2 person households >60% of Billings) and the housing choices available (3+ bedroom housing >60% of housing stock). We have a deficit of one and two-bedroom housing stock. A detailed research project was completed about the re-emerging housing choice of an Accessory Dwelling Unit (ADU) in the country. ADUs became very popular throughout the US in the post-WWII building boom and over 900 of these units still exist in Billings, although the 1972 zoning code made most of them non-conforming to code. All of this information and public education helped inform the work of the Urban Issues Working Group while they considered new neighborhood zone districts. 

This is the first in a series of public hearings on the Public Review Draft of the new county zoning regulations and will focus on the new Rural Residential and Neighborhood zone districts (Section 27-300) and the uses specified for these districts (Section 27-1000). In addition, the new County code has a section for the one Agricultural zone district (Section 27-900). The current code structure is similar - districts are described in Section 27-304, site requirements are set in Section 27-308 and uses are specified in Section 27-305. In this proposed code, each group of zone districts - Residential, Commercial/Mixed Use, Industrial, Public and Agricultural - will have a code section where the district is described and the site requirements are specified. The current code section for Uses only contains a matrix table but none of the Use standards. All of the Use standards are in current code Section 27-600 and range from storage requirements, manufactured homes, alcohol service, churches, fences, home occupations to hazardous waste facilities. In the proposed code structure, Uses and Use Standards are all in one code section - Section 27-1000. This makes it easier to find any specific requirements for a particular use. The Use Table has a Use Standard reference in the right-most column of the table.

Current Agricultural and Residential Districts and General Site Requirements - Section 27-300
The current zone districts where residential uses are allowed include the following 21 zones:

• Agricultural Open-Space - A-1
• Agricultural Suburban - A-S
• Residential 15,000 - R-150
• R-96 - Residential 9,600
• R-80 - Residential 8,000
• R-70R - Residential 7,000 Restricted
• R-70 - Residential 7,000
• R-60R - Residential 6,000 Restricted
• R-60 - Residential 6,000
• R-50 - Residential 5,000
• RMF - Residential Multi-Family
• RMF-R - Residential Multi-Family - Restricted
• RMH - Residential Manufactured Home
• RP - Residential Professional (single dwelling units only)
• NC - Neighborhood Commercial
• CC - Community Commercial
• HC - Highway Commercial
• CI - Controlled Industrial (Special Review - single dwelling units only)
• ELC - Entryway Light Commercial (Special Review in Mixed Use development)
• EGC - Entryway General Commercial (Special Review in Mixed Use development)
• EMU - Entryway Mixed Use

The proposed zone districts where residential uses will be primary uses will replace the above mentioned with the five following districts:

N4	Large Lot Suburban Neighborhood Residential
RR1	Rural Residential 1
RR3	Rural Residential 3
R-RMH	Rural Residential Manufactured Home
A	Agriculture

Where a water and sewer district (municipal type - Lockwood, Broadview) serves property, the seven following districts will be available:

N1	First Neighborhood Residential
N2	Mid-Century Neighborhood Residential
N3	Suburban Neighborhood Residential
NX1	Mixed Residential 1
NX2	Mixed Residential 2
NX3	Mixed Residential 3
RMH	Residential Manufactured Home

The two proposed commercial zone districts in the county will not allow residential uses. The Mixed Use zone districts available where district water and sewer serves property will allow residential uses as part of a mixed use building but not stand-alone residential developments. This structure allows more predictability in zone district designations. For example, a CC zone now could have a lumber yard and hardware store  - or it could be an apartment complex - or it could be both just on different parts of the parcel. Reconfiguring the zone districts to better match the intended uses adds to the stability of rural residential areas and more urban places in the County such as Lockwood.

N4 - Large Lot Suburban Neighborhood Residential
The N4 zone district - Large Lot Suburban Neighborhood - is a zone district intended for the rural neighborhoods close to the city limits where lot sizes range from 15,000 square feet and up. Here is the zone district description: The zone district site requirements follow in Section 27-304 in a table and illustration format. The table describes the site requirement and the number in the left-most column of the table is matched to the opposite page illustration. See the attached Code Section 27-300.

The proposed County code is different than current code requirements for suburban districts. The proposed N4 district will have minimum lot area per principal building and also a maximum area (just shy of one acre). The maximum area is intended to give more predictability to rural neighborhoods where few families engage in small scale agricultural pursuits. The Rural Residential zones and Agricultural zone districts allow larger lots where these activities can fit in well without intruding on adjacent owners.

RR-1 & RR-3 - Rural Residential
The RR-1 and RR-3 zone districts are intended to allow flexibility in lot sizes and to provide for residential uses with or without agricultural uses. Here is the zone district description:
The RR zone districts will allow up to three accessory buildings on a parcel to accommodate storage and agricultural activities. The RR zones will replace some of the A-S zoned areas and some of the R-150 zoned areas and will match up with the lot area ranges. The RR zones have basic setbacks and building heights similar to the A-S and R-150 zone districts but will be more likely to accommodate small scale agricultural activity.

R-RMH - Rural Residential Manufactured Home
The proposed R-RMH zone district is intended to recognize the large lot manufactured home neighborhoods that exist in the county where county water and sewer services are not available. Here is the zone district description:
The R-RMH zone designation will provide accurate and predictable land use for these rural manufactured home neighborhoods. The A, RR-1 and RR-3 will also allow some manufactured home types but the R-RMH will allow both the Type 1 (newer than 1989) and Type 2 manufactured home. The current code of designation of manufactured homes is not consistent with state law requirements. The proposed code will update these definitions but will keep the same sort of use allowance in the new zone districts. For example, the N4 zone district will not allow either type of manufactured home similar to the current R-96 zone district. The R-150 zone district allow a "Class A" manufactured home by right and all others by special review approval. The proposed RR-1 and RR-3 will allow Type 1 (aka Class A) manufactured homes and require special review for all others. The R-RMH district has a minimum lot area and basic setbacks and building requirements.

A - Agriculture
This zone district is intended to preserve land for agricultural pursuits as a primary use. Residential uses will be allowed and the existing minimum lot area for the A-1 zone of 10 acres is carried forward.
The new A zone district is intended to be very similar to the existing A-1 zone district and the uses in the Use Table in Section 27-1002 reflect this continuity.

Urban Zone Districts - Lockwood and Limits of Annexation Areas
The "urban" zone districts will only be allowed or mapped in the County where county water and sewer is available to the property or where the development character matches these zone districts more closely than the new County rural residential zone districts. Some of the neighborhoods in the Southwest Corridor area between State Avenue and King Ave East for example will have an urban zone district designation and not a rural zone district. For new developments in the County, a rural zone district will be required unless the property has access to a county water and sewer district. The only existing water and sewer district in the county is the Lockwood District and Town of Broadview. The Billings Heights Water district does not include sewer service, and the urban zone districts will not be allowed in this water district except inside the city limits where sewer service is available.

Here is a brief summary of these "urban" zone districts that may be allowed in the County.
N1 - First Neighborhood Residential
The N1 zone district - First Neighborhood Residential - is a zone district intended to create and preserve the development style of Billings' first neighborhoods built around the turn of the last century. Here is the zone district description:
The proposed code is different than current code requirements for residential districts. The proposed districts no longer have a minimum lot area requirement. Minimum lot area requirements lead to housing cost escalation (supply of land is limited), increases cost to provide city level services (area/length of road greater than required to accommodate lot area minimums), and makes it more difficult to fund and develop necessary neighborhood amenities such as parks, trails, and transportation options. Minimum lot area is also a vestige of out-dated exclusionary zoning policies intended to make certain neighborhoods off limits to minorities and people from lower socio-economic classes. The N1 zone district will replace the various zone designations in Billings core neighborhoods except where there are multi-family developments or zoning and where there are neighborhood service businesses (e.g. Harper Madison, Kionona Laundry, Poet Street Market, Green leaf Jewelry etc).

N2 - Mid-Century Neighborhood Residential
The N2 zone district is intended to preserve and create the character of neighborhoods built around the middle of the last century. These neighborhoods feature wider lots and ranch-style homes with 1 or 2-car attached garages. Also, two family duplex buildings were frequently interspersed in these neighborhoods. The N2 zone requires a different set of site development characteristics but does not rely on minimum lot area requirements. The lot width is greater than the N1 zone district, but building heights are less and the build-to range at the street frontage is a little narrower. Also, the garage doors on the front building facade is an important feature. The district is described as: The proposed zone district requirements closely resemble the existing R-96, R-70-R and R-60-R zone districts. There are some site requirements added to ensure walkability in neighborhoods such as limiting the percentage of a front facade with garage openings to 50% or less of the total building frontage and setting the minimum lot width at 65 feet - except for cul-de-sac lots or flag lots.

The N3 zone also has a the table and illustration page for basic site requirements. The proposed N3 zone will be limited to single-family detached buildings as a primary use.

The Mixed Residential zone districts - NX1, NX2, NX3
These districts are intended to put finer detail in place for our existing and proposed multi-family developments. As part of our Code Assessment and character analysis, there are three basic types of multi-family developments - a one to four-family small apartment house style (NX1) throughout many of the neighborhoods, a two to eight-family apartment building or group of buildings (NX2) in some newer neighborhoods, and the larger multi-family buildings (five or more units/building) or groups of apartment buildings (NX3) built as a stand alone neighborhood. Here are the district descriptions:
Each one of these zone districts is similar in the site requirements but the NX3 allows more building stories than the NX1. Each district is allowed 60% lot coverage. The NX2 and NX3 zone districts do require a minimum lot area of 7,000 square feet when a principal building has three or more dwelling units. In order to increase walkability in these multi-family developments, the code is proposing to that all garage parking be accessed from the rear of the building.  

RMH - Residential Manufactured Home
The RMH zone district is remaining a zone district specifically for manufactured homes and manufactured home parks. As part of this update, we surveyed all the existing manufactured home parks and site designs. The quality of a manufactured home park is primarily based on the quality of its local management team but certain amenities and site requirements increase the quality from the start. These include open space for a neighborhood playground, sidewalks, community storage spaces and landscaping. The RMH zone district description is as follows: The proposed site development requirements for the RMH district allow one dwelling unit per 3,000 square feet of lot area, allows up to 50% lot coverage, requires a 20 foot front setback, eight feet from the side and rear lot lines, and re-aligns the definition of a manufactured home with the state law definition in Municipal Zoning (MCA 76-2-304) and County Zoning (MCA 76-2-202). The site requirements also include setting aside and area for a neighborhood park for manufactured home developments of three or more acres. 

County Zone Districts - Uses and Use Standards - Section 27-1000
The existing uses allowed in County residential zones will continue forward in the proposed Rural Residential and Neighborhood zones. The County residential districts will allow single family dwellings only. Customary accessory uses such as garages, barns and storage sheds will also be allowed as accessory structures. The "urban" zone districts will allow more housing choices, but will only be available in Lockwood and will be mapped to match existing land uses outside the city limits where applicable.

Home occupations currently allowed in the residential zones will continue to be allowed in the new zone districts. These occupations are typically office based businesses or on line businesses. There are a few additional stipulations on home occupations in Section 27-1008.M including prohibited businesses such as engine repair or maintenance, businesses that have employees reporting to the residence and similar "non-residential" activities.

Churches and day care centers can be proposed in the rural residential zone districts but will still require special review approval by the County Commissioners. The Primary Use Table starts on page -9- and the Accessory Use Table starts on page -65- of the attached draft Section 27-1000.

The maximum floor area of residential accessory garages will be regulated based on the underlying zone district. In the N4 and R-RMH zone district, the maximum floor area of a detached accessory building is proposed to be 2,000 square feet or the floor area of the residence whichever is less. The total maximum floor area of detached accessory structures in the N4 and R-RMH is 3,000 square feet. In the RR-1 & RR-3 zone districts the single structure maximum is 3,000 square feet and the total maximum floor area is 5,000 square feet. There is no limitation in the A zone district.

Accessory Dwelling Units - Section 27-1009.G
Accessory Dwelling Units (abbreviated as ADU’s) are small dwellings that are built attached to, within, or on the same property as existing residential structures. With concerns surrounding housing affordability circulating in many US cities, municipalities are considering the allowance of ADU’s to encourage non-intrusive and small-scale housing development. It is not considered a full second primary residence due to its small size and sharing of common utilities and space with the primary residence. In the City of Billings, ADUs were a popular and prevalent housing choice right after WWII and up until the early 1960s. Most if not all of these ADUs were "outlawed" by the adoption of the 1972 City Zoning Code. City staff and VISTA members Jacob Cote, Claire Yang and Dave Drennan, researched and analyzed local property data to discover where these ADUs still exist in the community. the analysis focused on the City of Billings. We found over 900 remaining ADUs in the City of Billings. Every neighborhood had at least a few but they are more common in the mid-century neighborhoods closer to downtown.

Jacob Cote authored a briefing white paper on ADUs for consideration by the Steering Committee and Working Groups. "Our housing needs are changing. Industry professionals have begun to notice a gap forming between the housing currently available in our cities and the wants and needs of people looking for a home. The housing inventory in Billings, as in many other Western US cities, provides a lot of choice at the upper end of the market; not so many choices are available at the lower end ." (Jacob Cote, ADU White Paper, 2018)

First and foremost, the proposed code for ADUs is not intended to make all existing ADUs "legal" but it does provide an avenue for those units to become recognized as legal in zoning. This is important for financing and insuring these properties. A re-build letter is a necessary asset in today's real estate market. The proposed regulations are also a way for new builders to allow this option for their clients - either as an addition or as new build. There is increasing demand in the housing market to accommodate multi-generational families. An ADU allows flexibility to accommodate aging parents, adult children just starting out, and provides a possible source of income to allow elders to "age in place". AARP officially endorses ADUs as a housing choice for senior citizens and their families.

The Urban Issues Working Group decided to initiate a Task Group on the issue to define and come to consensus on a draft set of regulations for the city and county. This task group had representation from the County Issues Working Group to add perspective and insight on behalf of the County. The ADU Task Group met for 6 weeks to discuss and clarify the issues and agreed to a final set of ADU regulations by mid-June 2019. These regulations are embedded in the Use Standards section of the draft code at 27-1009.G. The proposed code limits the size of a detached ADU, requires one additional off-street parking space in the N4 zone, has to be registered with the Planning Division, the property owner must live in one of the units, and requires the filing of a protective covenant that runs with the land stating the ADU restrictions.

ADUs are proposed to be allowed in the A zone and by special review approval in the N4, RR1 and RR3 zone districts. An accessory unit cannot be a "third" unit on a parcel - it may only be a second unit. The allowance in the A zone district is to accommodate the traditional farm tenant home or extended family dwelling on large working farms and ranches.

Short Term Rentals - Section 27-1005.O
Air BnB, VRBO and other short term rental platforms have made this home owner small business viable throughout the country. Our code was written during a time when little tourism was evident in Billings or Yellowstone County. Communities closer to major tourist destinations such as Yellowstone and Glacier National Parks, or the scenic forests of western Montana have always regulated "vacation homes" through their local land use regulations. The Billings area now draws in more types and varieties of "tourists" than typical gateway communities. Billings has a strong medical services sector, retail draw of at least a 400-mile radius, regional major events (sports and entertainment), and a important financial sector business, oil & gas and agriculture.

Short term rentals are available in the County's neighborhoods although the current zoning code does not legally allow this use of residential homes. Any rental of property for less than 30 days is considered either a "hotel, bed & breakfast, boarding house or lodging house". These uses require special review under current code. Most of the homes offered for short term rental in Billings are not causing issues or impacts in neighborhoods. Most neighbors are unaware the home down the street is a short term rental.

This was identified as a gap in our existing code. The consultant team proposed a set of "starter" regulations for short term rentals in Yellowstone County. These are basic regulations meant to prevent some of the issues experienced in larger communities such as the "party house" problems in Las Vegas, corporate buy-outs of popular short term rental neighborhoods, rentals of tents, RVs and non-permanent structures, and similar actions that make a significant impact on neighbors and neighborhoods.

The proposed County regulations would allow Guest Homes - owner occupied for at least 180 days per year - in the Residential districts and in most of the Commercial districts as long as the property is registered with the Planning Division and provides for a local contact manager or person available 24-hours a day to respond to any complaints such as - noise, parking, disturbances, vandalism and similar problems. There would be a nominal charge for the registration and the STRs would need to ensure the rental met basic life safety for occupancy such as smoke and carbon monoxide detectors.

Tourist homes - non-owner occupied dwellings - would only be allowed by special review approval in certain commercial zone districts.

Planning staff met with a group of STRs owners and the proposed regulations are acceptable to the owners. The proposed regulations - as do all zoning regulations - cannot override or allow a use that is not allowed by a private subdivision covenant or restriction. Property owners will need to know whether their use is allowed by their covenants or restrictions. The Planning staff will not enforce those restrictions.

Staff recommends the Zoning Commission open the public hearing and receive public comment and testimony. After all the hearings are complete, the Zoning Commission will conduct a final meeting and vote on a recommendation to the County Commissioners.